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“We had been hopelessly labouring to plough waste lands; to make nationality grow in a place full of the certainty of God… Among the tribes our creed could be only like the desert grass – a beautiful swift seeming of spring; which, after a day’s heat, fell dusty.”
― T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

Happy birthday, Rusty. Brings back that memory from 2009 when we were both on the Iowa in Suisun and your guy in charge told me to keep you from being too active in going below decks. Yeah, right you were going to go below decks and since I wanted to also see below decks I didn't say anything. You were 73 then...

Rusty - Yes, a very happy 81st!!! And from the sounds of your last post, it seems your fighting spirit is back!!! GREAT!!!

Hank

Thank you all. My daughter threw a great birthday party for me a couple of days later including members of my Model Train club. Had about 40 people there.

I'm also slowly building my strength back up and do most of my walking without even a cane. There is a procedure for my "condition" but off-handedly considered 30 years too old for it. Think I'll try it anyway. I don't think their previous patients had the ancestry I do (one grandfather was a professional wrestler and State of Iowa lightweight champion and the other grandfather, with a German name, was a Russian Cossack in the Ukraine).

So by putting weight back on with my daughter's excellent meals and excersize I don't look so much like a Klingon from the Original Series of Star Trek.